Listen Barack Obama, John Edwards and all you other soon-to-be also-rans, lay off Hillary. She’s well on her way to winning the nomination and we don’t want anything to stand in her way, especially attacks on her character and integrity that might sidetrack her on the way to being your party’s standard bearer.

So leave her alone, let her cruise her way to the nomination so we Republicans can have the pleasure of dissecting her in the general election campaign.

And she is about as dissectible as a politician can get, starting with her health care reform fiasco, her sleazy involvement in the White House travel office firings, her use of private detectives to smear and harass the women who accused her husband of sexual misconduct, and her most recent campaign finance shenanigans.

I know that many of you fear that Hillary’s truckload of negatives will not only kill her chances of winning next year, but will also carry a lot of your colleagues down to defeat in 2008. I can understand why you are finally beginning to go after her – deep down inside you realize she’s your worst nightmare come true. With your party’s prospects for winning the presidency and increasing you numbers in Congress about as bright as they’ve ever been you don’t want anything to upset the apple cart.

Here’s how The Washington Post put it in an Associated Press story on August 12.

"Democratic leaders quietly fret that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton at the top of their 2008 ticket could hurt candidates at the bottom. They say the former first lady may be too polarizing for much of the country. She would jeopardize the party’s standing with independent voters and give Republicans who otherwise might stay home on Election Day a reason to vote."

The story goes on to report: "The problem is her political baggage: A whopping 49 percent of the public says they have an unfavorable view of Clinton compared to 47 percent who say they hold her in high regard, according to a Gallup Poll survey Aug. 3-5."

Right on! So you can see why we Republicans want to have the honor of exploiting the lady’s negatives for all the world to see. She likes to boast that she has faced the worst the so-called Republican attack machine can throw at her and has survived. Let me tell you, she ain’t seen nothing yet. We have long memories and a huge arsenal of ammunition to fire at her when the time comes.

I know you Democrats don’t want to do us Republicans any favors, but just this once let us have our way. Give us the opportunity to give the Republican attack machine another shot at Hillary Clinton. Let her coast to victory in the primaries. Then we’ll take it from there.

Mike Reagan, the elder son of the late President Ronald Reagan, is heard on 130 radio stations nationally as part of American Family Radio. Look for Mike's newest book "Twice Adopted" (Broadman & Holman Publishers) and "The City on a Hill," other info at www.Reagan.com.